April weather. Travel problems. Odds and ends of news.

There was frost on the shed roof this morning. In fact I should have expected it because the weather forecast on the TV last night had predicted as much. The vagaries of April weather in the Northwest of England. Despite the frost, however, it has turned out to be a beautiful day. 

We simply must remember not to plan picnics at this time of year. Not without a contingency plan anyway!

On our recent travels we went through the procedure of having our fingerprints taken and possibly a retina scan as well - I think that’s what the new regulations call for. It was a painless and speedy procedure which didn’t cause us any problems. And yet yesterday I heard that more than 100 passengers were left stranded in Milan after an easyJet flight to Manchester took off without them following huge passport control queues linked to new EU border checks. Surely someone must have foreseen that this could happen. Another Brexit benefit?

One of the stranded passengers interviewed on television news last night complained at the derisory amount of compensation offered by easyJet. I was reminded of the time we were stranded at Milan-Bergamo airport because of fog and a pilot who was not qualified to land in fog (!?). On that occasion the budget airline we flew with simply gave passengers a list of local hotels and left us to fend for ourselves. We were fortunate enough to get on a flight the very next day with no extra charge. I understand that those left behind in Milan on Saturday were counted as ‘no-shows’ and had to pay for new flights! Such are the joys of travel!

So Orbàn has been voted out of power in Hungary. Some wag on Facebook suggested that as J. D? Vance supporting him was so “successful” maybe Mr Vance could work the same magic by campaigning for Farage! 

In Mexico President Claudia Sheinbaum has initiated a process to provide free health care to all citizens. Hurrah for Mexico.

In contrast, how about this for a headline about our NHS:

Private firms providing services to NHS made £1.6bn profit in two years, research finds 

Exclusive: MPs say profit-making levels in England are ‘scandalous’ and call for cap on amount private companies can make from NHS

There’s something wrong there! 

Here’s a link to an article about Cuban doctors, trained for free and going out to deal with crises in the world, but now being pushed out of places by the US.

And here’s a photo I forgot to post yesterday with information about protestors against the Palestine Action ban being arrested. Wonderful suffragette outfits!

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!